Communication Analysis

Why do people communicate? Communication between people helps to express feelings, opinions, information and ideas. In the Caring Profession communication ensures all the decisions being made are in the best interest of everyone involved. Clients communicate with support workers to ensure that their care is exactly what they want and need. People also communicate to help form and develop relationships. In the health and social care setting these relationships may be with service users, service users families, visitors or colleagues.

Health and social care workers may need to obtain and share information about service users with colleagues or other professionals. They need to be able to communicate well to family members and the service user themselves about the care they are giving and how well it is being given. Effective communication can help to encourage service users to express how they are feeling, what they need and what their wishes or preferences are.

How communication affects all aspects of your work. Communication affects the work of a support worker in a variety of ways; including ensuring that the quality of care is to the highest standard possible.

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Support workers need to be able to communicate with their clients, understanding their needs and wants for their care. Family of clients may also need to express their wishes to the support worker alongside what the client needs. Support workers need to be able to communicate well with other colleagues so they are able to express any concerns or ideas that they may have, and be able to create ways of solving issues and problems. Team leaders of support workers need to be able guide their team through their work and help them deal with different situations.

They need to be able to communicate well with their team to ensure all aspects of the job are completed. Communication helps a support worker to encourage a service user to express anything they are feeling, along with their needs, wishes and/or preferences. It helps a support worker to be able to communicate with other practitioners for example GP’s, mental health practitioners, about how well care is going, what changes a support worker may think need to happen.

Why is it important to observe body language of the person you are communicating with? Body language is classed as a type of ‘non-verbal’ communication.

The way people sit, stand and walk are ways of the emotions we feel inside are portrayed. By becoming aware of body language it will make reading people’s emotions a lot easier. You can judge people’s reactions to a specific piece of information; by the way their body reacts. Observation of body language helps to understand the effectiveness of the communication; for example, whether they understood what is being said. Another example of body language during communication is if the other person is sat ‘lounging’ around in their chair is could mean that they are comfortable and feeling relaxed with you around.

Their body language helps to determine how a service user is feeling about what has just been said, even if they do not tell you. You can also tell if you have used the appropriate language or whether what you have said has offended the service user.

Identify barriers to good communication Good communication is essential to effective care and is particularly important to disabled people as poor communication can often lead to disabled people missing essential appointments and therefore treatment.

When communicating with a person there may be a variety of different barriers that need to be overcome, these barriers are especially evident for support workers and their service users. Some service users may feel uncomfortable when someone is too formally dressed (e. g. suit and tie) they may feel intimated and unsure to how they are supposed to react. There may be a special communication barrier e. g. deafness, where another form of communication will need to be adopted such as BSL (British Sign Language) or ‘written communication’.

Support workers will need to determine differences between them and the support worker that may get in the way of them understanding what the service user needs for example religious and cultural activity. Environmental factors: A noisy surrounding can impair listening and concentration, along with poor lighting conditions can prevent a person noticing any type of non verbal communication, and in the situation where a support worker is communicating with a service user who has a hearing impairment, it may reduce their ability to lip read.

Developmental Stage: If a service user is a child for example, the support worker would have to think about how they go about expressing themselves. Long sentences, complex words or unusual phrases may limit the service users ability to understand the support worker, and cause confusion and discomfort. Language and cultural differences: In the UK there are many different cultures, ethnic groups and language communities. Some service users may have English as their second or third language; some may not even speak English at all.

Distress, emotional difficulties and health problems: Depressions and strokes for example may cause a barrier in communication. They may not be able to understand what is being said or be able to communicate back to the support worker. Some illnesses or injuries may cause a service user to withdraw themselves from certain communication situations.

Where can you get advice and information to help you communicate more effectively?

If you are able to, the best place to find out how to communicate more effectively is asking the service user directly to see if they have any ideas on how help communication for example written communication instead of verbal. If that is not possible, the next in line is the support workers Team leader or colleagues. Team leaders may be able to point the support worker towards extra training such as sign language, or becoming more aware of religious backgrounds. Colleagues may have thought of a way to communicate better with a service user and would be able to help you out.

Also communication or language support specialists (speech/language therapists and psychologists) who work or spend time at your workplace will be able to give the support worker advice on the best possible action.

What does confidentiality mean? The definition of ‘Confidentiality’ is the privacy of information and its protection from unauthorised disclosure. In the work place confidentiality is a key aspect to a support workers job, they have access to dates of birth, bank details, phone numbers etc, and it is part of their job to keep that information confidential so the service user is not put into any vulnerable situations.

A support worker should only share information about a service user with those who have the right to know or when a person has given them the permission to disclose the information about them.

Give an example of a situation where you might need to pass on confidential information. What actions do you need to take when there are concerns over the recording, storing or sharing of information? Related to the Care profession, there is several times where you may need to pass on confidential information.

One example of this is if the client/service user is in grave danger, through being vulnerable or through their health. When this situation occurs support workers should pass on the relevant information to their service users’ representative and their team leader. If the team leader feels it needs to be taken further then it may be passed onto social workers. Also another situation could be when a court or a statutory health organisation, such as a Mental Health Act tribunal, asks for specific information on a service user.

If there are any concerns with the recording storing or the sharing of information ALL support workers should bring up the issue of this with their team leader and possibly take it higher. Their team leader should bring them in for an interview so they can discuss the matters in private.

Explain how and when to get advice about confidentiality and handling information. If a Support worker needs advice about confidentiality and handling information, their first point of call would be to read their companies Data protection policy (located in the training room/ on the company’s website for JRH).

If the Data protection policy does not help then they should go to their team leader. They may need advice when they feel unable/unqualified to deal with the information that has been disclosed. If a service user comes to a support worker and requests to tell them something ‘in confidence’ then the support worker has to say that they may not be able to keep it ‘in confidence’ depending on the situation, as its part of their job to act on safeguarding the service users welfare.

Why is it important to have secure systems for recording and storing information in the health and social care setting? In the Health and Social Care setting, there must be secure systems for recording and storing information so that all service users are not put under risk of their information being shared. All service users give their personal information (i. e. date of birth, name, phone numbers) to the supporting company. If their information was not secure then the service users would become very vulnerable.

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